[Main Mission: Survive for 14 days. 12/14]

A few days had passed since Yeoman’s group had encountered the mercenaries. Other than the lack of sleep and the lack of food despite the abundance of dead animals, Yeoman was doing well. There weren’t any issues or noticeable encounters. After all, he wasn’t in a story. It was unrealistic to have memorable encounters every day. Yeoman rolled over, praying today would be the same as yesterday. Snow still hadn’t made a move against him, not since abandoning his side when they were approached by the mercenaries. Unfortunately, Yeoman’s prayers fell short. It must’ve been because he wasn’t Christian.

“Ah? Something’s approaching us?” Lucia asked and sat up. She had been woken up by Durandal just moments before. She scratched her stomach and yawned. “Well, whatever it is, let’s cook it for breakfast! It’s not every day breakfast delivers itself to me.” She stood up, grabbed her sword, and froze. Her tail stiffened. A massive brown snout came into view. Lucia’s eyes widened, and she shouted, “Snow! Goddammit, Snow! You said there were no bears here!”

However, the bunnykin was nowhere to be found. Lucia sprinted over to Yeoman’s side and picked up the bag of supplies. She coughed and nodded at Yeoman. “Yo-yo, it was nice knowing you!”

Before Yeoman could respond, Lucia had already dashed off into the forest, in the opposite direction of the bear. Yeoman was dumbfounded. Had he just been abandoned? He didn’t have time to think about it. He stumbled to his feet and ran to the left. There was no way he was going to catch up to Lucia; he could only hope that the bear ran in her direction instead of his. She was the one that ate most of the food, so she should smell more appetizing, right?

Crashing sounds came from behind Yeoman, and he forced his legs to run faster. A leather pouch thumped against his side every time he took a step. Lucia took the main bag, but she didn’t take the bag full of cores. The cracking of tree trunks became even louder, and Yeoman made up his mind. If he was going to get eaten by a bear, he might as well prepare for death. He put his left hand into the pouch and clutched a scavenger crow beast core.

[Would you like to combine 30 Scavenger Crow Gene Portions into Scavenger Crow Gene (Epic)?]

[Yes] [No]

Yeoman hit the [Yes] button, and a purple light flashed from his wrist.

[Obtained Scavenger Crow Gene (Epic)]

[Scavenger Crow Gene (Epic): Unlocks the Scavenger Crow evolution tree. Can be used at any time. The user will unlock the voice-changing ability of a scavenger crow.]

[Would you like to use the Scavenger Crow Gene?] [Yes] [No]

Luckily, this gene wouldn’t turn him into a bird. Then again, if he did turn into a bird, he could probably fly away from the fat bear. Either way, Yeoman pressed the [Yes] button, and a sharp pain assaulted his throat. A moment later, it was gone. Rough panting came from behind Yeoman, and he pumped his legs even harder, focusing solely on running away. His heart pounded in his chest, and branches and bushes scraped at his body, but he couldn’t feel a thing.

“Yeoman,” a lovely voice said, causing Yeoman to glance to his right. A smiling bunnykin was moving alongside him, keeping up without breaking a sweat. “I have to admit,” Snow said, “you were really useful these past few days. However, you foiled my plans, and for that, you have to die.”

Yeoman kept running. If he stopped now, the bear would catch up. He angled himself towards the left, trying to create some distance between himself and Snow, but it didn’t work.

“There’s no need to run,” Snow said. “I’m not going to kill you.”

Snow disappeared from Yeoman’s view, and a dull feeling dragged across the back of his legs. Yeoman fell face first to the ground, his momentum carrying him a few yards forward until he came to a stop. His legs weren’t working anymore. Snow had cut his hamstrings. A shadow fell over his vision, and there was a stabbing pain in his chest. A beautiful face came into view, and a furry paw patted his cheek. “There, there. The bear will be here shortly to end your suffering. Don’t try to say anything; I punctured your lung.” Snow blinked before smiling. “Wait. I forgot. You can’t speak even if I didn’t.” Laughter tinkled out of Snow’s mouth, and the bunnykin took the pouch on Yeoman’s waist. “Hum, less cores than I thought. Oh well. Goodbye, Yeoman.”

The shadow in Yeoman’s vision disappeared, revealing the morning sun. Was he going to die here? He couldn’t breath. Every breathe he took hurt his chest. His vision was blurring. Even if he wasn’t eaten by the bear, he’d die of either blood loss or drowning. All he had accomplished was killing a scavenger crow and unlocking its evolution tree. He wasn’t satisfied with that. What would Cody and Ella think? After he abandoned them, he went off and got killed so easily. He wouldn’t be able to face them. More importantly, he didn’t want to die. He had read that dying was like falling asleep, but there was nothing peaceful about this. He was terrified. Every cell in his body was screaming at him to live.

Yeoman bent his arms, bringing his forearms towards his head. He was still on the ground, and the movements caused his skin to scrape against rocks, leaves, and twigs, but he couldn’t even feel it. He tapped on his fleshwatch.

[Human Zombie Fungus Gene (Epic): Unlocks the Human Zombie Fungus evolution tree. Can be used at any time. The user will turn into a zombie.]

[Would you like to use the HZF Gene?] [Yes] [No]

Yeoman’s vision was darkening, but he still managed to press the [Yes] button. A moment later, all his pain vanished. His exhaustion evaporated. His hunger intensified. Yeoman pushed himself up with his hands and turned over, sitting on his butt. His legs weren’t responding. His chest didn’t move up and down since he no longer needed to breathe. The immediate danger was resolved, but another one was coming. The fat bear’s paw broke down a tree, revealing the rest of the hulking beast’s figure. Oddly enough, Yeoman wasn’t afraid. No. Right now, he only felt one thing: Hunger.

The bear roared at Yeoman but didn’t approach. It circled around him, and Yeoman twisted his body, using his arms, to rotate along with the bear. The bear’s hide was thick, and even Lucia wasn’t confident in cutting it, not without absorbing more cores first. There was no way Yeoman was going to hurt this bear, at least, not from the outside. Yeoman bent his arms and pushed off the ground, flinging his body at the bear. It roared and charged at him, its mouth widening. Yeoman landed on the ground and pushed himself forward once more, grabbing the knives at his waist while he was in the air.

The bear hesitated. Food always tried to run away from it. Food never delivered itself into the bear’s mouth. The hesitation didn’t last long. The bear opened its mouth wide, accepting Yeoman’s upper body inside. Then, it chomped down, severing his body in two. It chewed once, but found something odd. Its food had slipped down its throat, swallowed whole. The bear was dazed, but it shrugged and picked up the lower half of its food’s body with its teeth. With a toss of its head, its food’s legs were tossed into the air. It leaned back and sat on its haunches, opening its mouth. With a plop and a gulp, the legs were swallowed too. The bear fell back down onto all fours and sniffed the ground. It was feeling a little bloated, so instead of chasing the other food that had run off extremely far, it went back to whatever cave it crawled out of.

Meanwhile, inside the stomach of the bear, Yeoman was having a great time—if having a great time meant being dissolved in stomach acids. He couldn’t see anything. As expected of a location with no windows, it was dark inside the bear, but Yeoman didn’t need to see. He clutched his knives and stabbed them into the bear’s stomach lining. However, the metal couldn’t puncture the membranes within the bear’s stomach. The bear swallowed shadow panthers and moonlight wolves regularly. How could its stomach not be prepared for sharp objects? Yeoman suddenly felt like his life was a lie. All those movies he had seen with protagonists jumping into the mouths of giant snakes and dragons only to burst out of their necks a minute later, they were all bullshit. Was he going to die here? His armor was dissolving, his skin and flesh too. Luckily, it didn’t hurt, and the process was taking a while.

Yeoman frowned. He was a zombie now. His stomach acids should be stronger than the bear’s, right? If he drank the bear’s stomach acid, then … it’d leak right out of him since he was missing his lower half. Yeoman stabbed his knives into the bear’s stomach lining a few more times, but it was hopeless. He dropped the knives and twisted his body. Maybe he could climb out. He pressed his hands against the stomach lining but couldn’t find any purchase. It was too slick. However, he did grab something else: a leg. He thought he found his lower body, but for all he knew, it could’ve been a different unfortunate fellow’s. It was too dark to tell. Yeoman ignored the leg and grasped around some more.

After a few minutes of swimming and blindly groping, Yeoman found something: a flap of sorts. He gripped it as hard as he could and tugged. Nothing happened. It didn’t seem like his hands were enough. An idea came to him: sometimes, when he had trouble opening a package, he’d bite down on it and rip it with his teeth. It was a good thing he couldn’t feel pain. Yeoman dunked his head into the stomach acid and chomped on the flap he had found. He pressed his hands against the smooth walls around him and jerked his head back. The flap ripped. There was a roaring sound, and Yeoman’s world flipped upside down. The walls around him turned, but it didn’t matter. His teeth were firmly lodged in the flap, and with every jerking motion, the tear in the stomach lining widened.

Stomach acid leaked out of the tear, and the vibrations around Yeoman grew stronger. He ignored it and grasped the tear with both hands. He repositioned his mouth, biting closer to the rip, and tugged, widening the laceration even further. Soon, there was more blood than acid surrounding Yeoman, but he didn’t stop. It didn’t matter that his body was completely submerged; he didn’t have to breathe. Yeoman lost track of time as he ripped and teared at the flap. Only when the walls around him stopped moving and the blood surrounding him had congealed did he stop. A light flashed from his wrist.

[Bonus Mission: Kill a fat bear. 1/1]

The bear was dead. If Yeoman hadn’t used the HZF Gene, he would’ve died. However, he was a zombie now. Did this even count as surviving anymore? Yeoman ignored his wandering thoughts and sighed. He had to climb out of this bear, but he wasn’t sure it was possible to get past its thick hide. He could probably squeeze out if he found the bear’s esophagus, but it’d be hard to retrieve his legs if he did. However, Yeoman had a more pressing problem. He was hungry. It was odd, but the congealed blood around him smelled appetizing. While tearing apart the bear’s stomach, he had to resist the urge to drink the blood around him. The bear was dead now though, so Yeoman didn’t hold back.

Surprisingly, nothing leaked out of Yeoman’s torso. It was as if the blood he had eaten was directly absorbed after entering his stomach. It didn’t make sense to Yeoman because the intestines were the organs that absorbed nutrients, and he didn’t have any intestines at the moment. However, Yeoman didn’t care. He ate until he no longer felt hungry, and in the process, he found his lower legs too. It was naked, the armor having been dissolved by the stomach acid. He wondered if he could reattach it. The zombies were supposed to have miraculous healing abilities, but he didn’t know to what extent they could regenerate. He’d attempt to reattach it after exiting the bear; it was too dark in there.

As if something had heard Yeoman’s thoughts, a ray of light poked through from above. Massive beaks stabbed through the stomach linings, letting in more and more rays of light. The beaks didn’t belong to scavenger crows. They were curved and hooked like a bear’s claw. Death vultures. Yeoman’s hand flashed, and he grasped a beak as it poked through. There were squawking sounds and the flapping of wings. The beak pulled back against Yeoman’s hand, but his grip was solid. He yanked down, dragging the vulture’s head into the bear. He grabbed its neck with his other hand and lifted himself up as if he were tugging on a rope. Yeoman bit down on the vulture’s neck. It struggled for a bit, but soon, another light flashed from Yeoman’s wrist.

[Bonus Mission: Kill a death vulture. 1/1]

Out of habit, Yeoman tore off the vulture’s head and gave it a squeeze. A metallic object fell into his palm.

[Obtained Death Vulture Gene Portion]

[Death Vulture Gene Portion: Collect thirty of these to obtain a Death Vulture Gene (Epic).]

Yeoman wasn’t sure what he could get from a death vulture that he couldn’t get from a scavenger crow. They both had wings, which were really the only things he was interested in. As a young boy, he always wanted to fly by flapping his arms but accepted reality as he grew older. Perhaps the death vulture had a better sense of sight or hearing. Yeoman shook his head; then, he realized something. He could read the fleshwatch without any light, but the display didn’t help him see anything in the dark. All it did was help pinpoint the location of his left arm.

Yeoman didn’t have anything to hold the gene portion with, so he put it in his mouth. He grabbed the vulture’s head and pressed its beak against the top of the bear’s stomach. It took a while, but Yeoman cut open a gap to climb out of. Sunlight poured in, and Yeoman fetched his lower body. Surprisingly, he also found the water flask. It had a strange smell but was otherwise undamaged. His knives and hatchet were nowhere to be found, either washed into a different part of the bear or dissolved by the stomach acid. However, he did find his Dread Callers; they didn’t seem to be harmed. A metallic glint caught his attention, and he picked up a ring. A silver light flashed from his wrist.

[Obtained Ring of Dismantling (Uncommon)]

[Ring of Dismantling (Uncommon): Allows the user to cast Dismantle three times a day. Shares a cooldown with other magic tools.]

[Dismantle: Dismantles an object into its base components. Does not work on living things.]

Yeoman’s eyes lit up. There was a similar ring inside The Godking’s Legacy. Lucia regularly used it to dismantle animals after killing them. Yeoman never expected to find a ring inside the bear. It must’ve been due to the aliens’ influence, similar to how all the zombies carried lighters, hatchets, and knives in the previous stage. Perhaps if he killed another bear, he’d obtain another magic tool. Yeoman shook his head before slipping the ring onto his finger. He’d rather not encounter another bear. Speaking of which, he didn’t want to stay inside of this one either.

Yeoman tossed his lower body out along with his metal rods before climbing up himself, holding the water flask with his mouth. He landed on the ground near his legs. Without warning, a vulture swooped down, snatched his lower body with its beak, and hopped a few feet away. Yeoman’s eyes widened, and he launched himself forward with his arms. The vulture squawked, dropping Yeoman’s legs while falling over backwards. In less than a second, the bird righted itself and flapped its wings three times while backing away. The vulture stared at Yeoman before hopping to the right. It picked up a stick with its talons and awkwardly waddled towards Yeoman.

Poke. Poke, poke.

Yeoman’s expression darkened. It was a shame he had no tongue, or he would’ve scared the bird away by shouting at it. Instead, Yeoman grunted and snatched the stick. The vulture squawked again and hopped backwards, flapping its wings. It tilted its head, staring at Yeoman as if he were the eighth wonder of the world. Yeoman threw the stick at the bird, and it dodged it by hopping to the side. It squawked a few more times, attracting other vultures’ attentions. Soon, Yeoman was surrounding by the black birds. At first, they had come to eat the bear, but more and more of them became interested in him. They stood just outside his pouncing range, and every so often, one vulture would get brave enough to poke him with a stick. Yeoman had never felt more frustrated in his life.